Introduction: an occupational perspective on non-standard employment

Precariousness, youth and political participation: the emergence of a new political cleavage

“…Findings for other continental countries are similar to a certain extent (Marx, 2014; Eichhorst and Marx, 2015; Emmenegger et al ., 2015). Marx and Picot (2013) show that a growing number of atypical workers in Germany exhibit a propensity to vote for New Left and Green parties rather than traditional Social-Democratic ones – the former being much better at representing these voters’ preferences for redistributive policies and claims against the status quo .…”

“…Indeed, employment for a young person today has a different meaning and significance compared with an older person, just as having a job has a differential effect on the individual life trajectory of a man or a woman (Schlozman et al ., 1999). Analogously, part-time or temporary jobs might have different impacts on the repertoire of political actions compared with permanent full-time employment, as is the case for political attitudes (Corbetta and Colloca, 2013; Marx and Picot, 2013; Marx, 2014; Eichhorst and Marx, 2015).…”

“…Aware of the debate about precariousness and its subjective side (De Witte and Näswall, 2003), but limited by the quantitative nature of the data available, we constructed the category of ‘precarious workers’ by deploying temporary contracts as a proxy (Corbetta and Colloca, 2013; Marx and Picot, 2013; Marx, 2014; Eichhorst and Marx, 2015). In the survey, the category of temporary workers was built through a series of ‘filter’ questions asked at the beginning of the interview.…”

“… 1 Obviously, different kinds of associations play different roles: for migrants, inter-ethnic organizations are more relevant for political participation (Eggert and Giugni, 2010); in labour studies, trade unionism plays a central role (Schur, 2003). Among the other types of associations, ‘activist associations’ are the best predictor of political engagement (Van Der Meer and Van Ingen, 2009); and ‘distant organizations’ are stronger predictors than ‘face-to-face’ organizations (Stolle et al ., 2005).…”

Reassessing the ‘Social Investment Perspective’ for ‘Inclusive Growth’: Where do Older Workers Fit?

“…Here we might contrast the ‘thick’ or ‘heavy’ investment strategies pursued elsewhere in Northern Europe that have gone some way to address the growing needs of older workers, as shown in Table 2. Thus the participation rate of older people in non-formal education is relatively high in the Nordic context, the vast bulk of it is job-related training, underpinned by statist skill formation strategies (Eichhorst and Marx, 2015). By contrast, ALMPs and investment in human capital is generally weaker in liberal market societies, according to the cross-national indicators.…”